Manage your subscription

Lake to lose its silent killer

By Nicola Jones

CAMEROON has begun to make one of its deadly lakes safe at last.

Engineers have started installing pipes to remove carbon dioxide building up in the depths of Lake Monoun, which could erupt at any time and suffocate people nearby. The pipes will begin pumping out the gas by mid-February, and should make Monoun safe within a year and a half.

The gas seeps into Lake Monoun and its larger neighbour Lake Nyos from underground volcanic sources, and becomes trapped at the bottom of the unusually deep and still lakes. Any large disturbance that mixes the water, …